Development and pilot testing of measurement tool for diagnosis of lung cancer

Project summary

This project aims to develop and test a clinical quality measure for lung cancer diagnosis using electronic medical record (EMR) data from a large integrated health care system. The quality measure will incorporate three metrics to lung cancer diagnosis. 1) Time intervals within the diagnostic pathway, including patient interval (from first recognizing a bodily change to presenting), and the diagnostic interval (from first clinical assessment of symptoms and signs, via performing laboratory tests and imaging tests for presumptive diagnosis, to definitive histological diagnosis); 2) measurement of patient centered outcomes of testing, and 3) appropriateness of the testing process.

This work is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and involves collaborations with several CanTest researchers including University of Cambridge, University of Leeds and the University of Washington.  

Publications

• Zigman Suchsland M, Kowalski L, Burkhardt HA, Prado MG, Kessler LG, Yetisgen M, Au MA, Stephens KA, Farjah F, Schleyer AM, Walter FM, Neal RD, Lybarger K, Thompson CA, Achkar MA, Sarma EA, Turner G, Thompson M. How Timely Is Diagnosis of Lung Cancer? Cohort Study of Individuals with Lung Cancer Presenting in Ambulatory Care in the United States. Cancers. 2022; 14(23):5756. doi: 10.3390/cancers14235756